Social media show Denver shooter is a 'white supremacist and misogynist obsessed with masculinity'
Aysha Qamar
After keeping his identity secret for over 24 hours, the shooter in a deadly mass shooting in Denver, Colorado, on Monday was not only identified but said to have been previously criminally investigated both this and last year for undisclosed suspicions. But that’s not all: In addition to being on law enforcement’s radar, 47-year-old Lyndon James McLeod had also been described on social media as both a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.
Multiple posts back up these claims in which McLeod also signaled clear hatred toward women. The killings are speculated to be connected to his extremist views.
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According to the official Twitter account for Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists, a group that is “exposing fascists and disrupting their organizing in so-called Colorado,” McLeod “was a white nationalist.” The group provided screenshots of tweets from McLeod’s account to back up its claim.
“The Denver mass shooter was a white supremacist and a misogynist obsessed with masculinity, oppressing women, defending the white race, and shooting communists,” Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists said in a tweet. The organization also noted that McLeod often partook in right-wing extremist spaces under the pen name Roman McClay.
According to The Daily Beast, McLeod’s social media accounts also noted that he believed in targeted violence against the “weak.”
“This is basically the plot to my stupid book,” he tweeted in April 2020. “Our entire society is made up of shitty little ****s who insult badasses & get away with it because law enforcement & social norms protect the WEAK from the STRONG. I’m over it.”
He added: “The weak better buckle up... shit is about to get real.”
Multiple alt-right conspiracy theorists like Mike Cernovich also follow McLeod on social media, further supporting claims of his extremist views. Not to mention McLeod also wrote a book called Sanction under his pseudonym, as Nick Martin, a journalist with The Informant, noted on Twitter.
“The first book in the series includes an image on its cover of a skull marked with a wolfsangel, a symbol used by the original Nazis and some neo-Nazis,” Martin said in his tweet Tuesday. “The back cover of the book describes the author as “96% Norse-Scot 4% Neanderthal.”
Martin added that reviews of the book on Amazon noted that it included “fantasies of killing people involved in the BLM movement” and “fetishizes violence as the great equalizer.”
Outside of social media posts supporting claims of McLeod’s history of violent rhetoric, ABC News cited police sources in its report who said McLeod “harbored extremist views and had a history of psychiatric episodes.”
McLeod killed at least five people and injured two others Monday night. Law enforcement officials have noted that he knew all of his victims through either personal or professional relationships and called the shootings targeted during a press conference on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. While his motive has not been made public as of this report, according to The Denver Post, he may have been dressed as a police officer when he carried out the killings.
As investigations continue, police officials are urging anyone who may have witnessed the shooting rampage in Denver and Lakewood to contact them with any information.
The mass shooting marks the 13th in Colorado this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence nationally using a combination of police statistics and media reports. According to the archive, nearly 700 mass shootings occurred in the U.S. in 2021.
Aysha Qamar
After keeping his identity secret for over 24 hours, the shooter in a deadly mass shooting in Denver, Colorado, on Monday was not only identified but said to have been previously criminally investigated both this and last year for undisclosed suspicions. But that’s not all: In addition to being on law enforcement’s radar, 47-year-old Lyndon James McLeod had also been described on social media as both a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.
Multiple posts back up these claims in which McLeod also signaled clear hatred toward women. The killings are speculated to be connected to his extremist views.
........
According to the official Twitter account for Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists, a group that is “exposing fascists and disrupting their organizing in so-called Colorado,” McLeod “was a white nationalist.” The group provided screenshots of tweets from McLeod’s account to back up its claim.
“The Denver mass shooter was a white supremacist and a misogynist obsessed with masculinity, oppressing women, defending the white race, and shooting communists,” Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists said in a tweet. The organization also noted that McLeod often partook in right-wing extremist spaces under the pen name Roman McClay.
According to The Daily Beast, McLeod’s social media accounts also noted that he believed in targeted violence against the “weak.”
“This is basically the plot to my stupid book,” he tweeted in April 2020. “Our entire society is made up of shitty little ****s who insult badasses & get away with it because law enforcement & social norms protect the WEAK from the STRONG. I’m over it.”
He added: “The weak better buckle up... shit is about to get real.”
Multiple alt-right conspiracy theorists like Mike Cernovich also follow McLeod on social media, further supporting claims of his extremist views. Not to mention McLeod also wrote a book called Sanction under his pseudonym, as Nick Martin, a journalist with The Informant, noted on Twitter.
“The first book in the series includes an image on its cover of a skull marked with a wolfsangel, a symbol used by the original Nazis and some neo-Nazis,” Martin said in his tweet Tuesday. “The back cover of the book describes the author as “96% Norse-Scot 4% Neanderthal.”
Martin added that reviews of the book on Amazon noted that it included “fantasies of killing people involved in the BLM movement” and “fetishizes violence as the great equalizer.”
Outside of social media posts supporting claims of McLeod’s history of violent rhetoric, ABC News cited police sources in its report who said McLeod “harbored extremist views and had a history of psychiatric episodes.”
McLeod killed at least five people and injured two others Monday night. Law enforcement officials have noted that he knew all of his victims through either personal or professional relationships and called the shootings targeted during a press conference on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. While his motive has not been made public as of this report, according to The Denver Post, he may have been dressed as a police officer when he carried out the killings.
As investigations continue, police officials are urging anyone who may have witnessed the shooting rampage in Denver and Lakewood to contact them with any information.
The mass shooting marks the 13th in Colorado this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence nationally using a combination of police statistics and media reports. According to the archive, nearly 700 mass shootings occurred in the U.S. in 2021.
